Nobel Peace Prize 2026: Navi Pillay honoured as Nobel Committee calls for ‘a peaceful world’

Former UN human rights chief and International Court of Justice judge Navanethem Navi Pillay has received the Nobel Peace Prize for advancing peace and international law. 

Former UN human rights chief and International Court of Justice judge Navanethem “Navi” Pillay was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday in Oslo, Norway.

Pillay, 85, who was born in South Africa, was honoured for her work in advancing peace and international law, Jørgen Watne Frydnes, chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, said.

The committee in a release said, “At a time when the number of wars and conflicts is rising, and when judges and institutions of international law are under political attack, the Nobel Committee wishes to issue a reminder that the ability to resolve conflicts without force or violence is dependent on the international rule of law”

“An international legal system in which war criminals are held to account and the victims of abuse see justice served is a precondition for a peaceful world.”

The Norwegian Nobel Committee in Oslo received nominations for 287 candidates for this year’s prize, and just over a quarter of them are organizations. Experts say the committee typically focuses on the durability of peace, the promotion of international fraternity and the quiet work of institutions that strengthen those goals.

UN welcomes the award

The United Nations human rights office on Friday welcomed the news of Pillay's Nobel Peace Prize win, acknowledging her longstanding advocacy for human rights.

"It is amazing news, we need more dedication and commitment to human rights," Shabia Mantoo, spokesperson for the UN human rights office, told reporters in Geneva.

The award is often considered the most prestigious honor on the planet.

Last year, Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado won the Nobel Peace Prize for her struggle to achieve a democratic transition in the South American nation, winning recognition as a woman “who keeps the flame of democracy burning amid a growing darkness.”

Machado gave Trump her Nobel medal shortly after the United States ousted then-President Nicolás Maduro. But it was largely a symbolic gesture: the Nobel Committee has said the honor itself cannot be transferred.

Four Nobel prizes announced so far

Four of this year's Nobels were announced earlier this week. The Nobel for medicine went to three scientists whose work led to a tool that uses light to help unravel how the brain works. The physics award recognized a scientist’s efforts to demystify a rare group of neutrinos. The chemistry prize recognized two scientists for untangling mysterious mirror images in molecules, a discovery that has been used to develop countless drugs.

Canadian poet, essayist and translator Anne Carson won the literature prize Thursday for “bold and inventive” works that fuse the classical and the modern and blur the boundaries of poetry and prose.

The Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences will be announced Monday.